Agenda - 06-06-2023; 8-a - Minutes

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2 1 people experiencing homelessness are served less effectively than their white counterparts. She 2 said they discussed connecting the dots across systems to get to a place of equity and justice. 3 She said without a safe and affordable home, people cannot participate in democratic civic life. 4 She said it is clear that the county needs more investment in permanent supportive housing. She 5 said that on April 29, 2023 from 1 to 4 p.m., the Orange County Remembrance Coalition is holding 6 a soil collection ceremony at the Orange County Courthouse. She said they will commemorate 7 Cyrus Guy, Daniel Morrow, Jefferson Morrow, Washington Morrow and Wright Malone, all of 8 whom were lynched in Orange County. She said that in a soil selection ceremony, soil is retrieved 9 from the approximate or nearby location to where a lynching occurred and placed in two jars with 10 the lynching victim's name on them. She said one jar will stay in Orange County in remembrance 11 and the second is taken to Montgomery, Alabama to the Equal Justice Initiative's museum where 12 it will be exhibited with thousands of jars from around the United States. She said the collection 13 of soil is intended to bring community members closer to the legacy of lynching and to contribute 14 to the effort to bring a lasting and more visible memory to the history of racial injustice. She said 15 there will be proclamations, libation ceremony, and presentations to families of the victims. She 16 said there will be a corrected Resolution of Apology on the consent agenda during the meeting, 17 which corrects name and date errors. She said she is a member of the Orange County 18 Remembrance Coalition and will read the Resolution of Apology. She asked the Board to formally 19 designate her as the Board's formal representative on the Orange County Remembrance 20 Coalition. She said that the Board's action would make her role on the coalition more transparent. 21 22 Vice-Chair McKee made a motion to designate Commissioner Greene as the Orange 23 County Board of Commissioners' representative to the Orange County Remembrance Coalition. 24 Commissioner Fowler seconded the motion. 25 26 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 27 28 Commissioner Richards said she attended a meeting for TARPO on April 13th. She said 29 that, along with Commissioner Portie-Ascott, she toured the Emergency Services department. 30 She said there are upcoming events for Re-Entry Month. She said she was able to attend the 31 fireside chat in Hillsborough. She said she was struck by many of the same statistics that 32 Commissioner Greene mentioned with homelessness. She said that most people experiencing 33 re-entry have multiple issues, including housing needs. She said it is becoming more obvious 34 that the county needs the support of a behavioral health diversion center. 35 Vice-Chair McKee said he attended the Junior Livestock Show and Sale. He said the 36 event originally started as joint event between Durham and Orange counties along with 4-H and 37 FFA. He said he first participated about 60 years ago. He said it has evolved from a cow and 38 swine show to cow, swine, and sheep show along with other events. He said he hopes it goes 39 on another 60 years. 40 Chair Bedford said she attended a DSS Board meeting. She said that there was an equity 41 study by SAS, once children are in DSS or foster care. She said that they looked at the number 42 of days in care, the number of placements a child experiences, and the percentage of children in 43 kinship care. She said that numbers are trending in the right direction, especially in kinship care. 44 She said there was a disparity between black and white children in the number of placements. 45 She said there will be an additional study on what other factors could be addressed to reduce that 46 disparity. 47 Commissioner Portie-Ascott said she and Commissioner Richards toured Emergency 48 Services, attended a TARPO meeting and received a review from Transportation Director Nishith 49 Trivedi, which she appreciated, and attended the re-entry fireside chat. She said she attended 50 the Junior Livestock Show. She said she attended the Tarleton and Bonnie B. Davis Memorial